The IDF had issued clear warnings in Arabic and fired tear gas before firing over the heads of the Palestinians in an attempt to convince them to halt. The use of live fire and then, only used selectively, was only a last resort. READ MORE

Prior to spotting the armed men, according to the IDF spokesperson, around 150 people managed to cross to the Syrian side of the fence, entering a mined zone between the two fences in the Majdal Shams area.

“We issued warnings for them to stop advancing. When they continued, we fired warning shots in the air,” an IDF spokeswoman told The Jerusalem Post.

When the demonstrators continued toward the Israeli fence, they said, shots were fired at their lower bodies. “We know of 12 injuries,” she added.

A second demonstration was observed on the Syrian border in Kunetra, where 200 to 300 demonstrators amassed. The IDF said there was no attempt to cross the border at that event, and no injuries were recorded

IDF forces were sending Arabic-language messages through loudspeakers over the border, warning that anyone approaching the fence would be killed.

Earlier Sunday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned that there are “radical elements who are trying to breach [Israel’s] borders to mark the anniversary of the start of the Six Day War,” speaking at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting. “We won’t allow them to do it.”

Netanyahu added that the security forces will act “firmly but with restraint.”

IDF and police forces were on high alert and have shored up their presence on several of Israel’s frontiers ahead of Sunday’s anticipated border marches to commemorate the Palestinian “Naksa,” or “setback” in the 1967 Six Day War. A wide-scale Internet campaign has called for protests in the West Bank and Jerusalem, on Israel’s borders with Syria, Lebanon and Jordan and outside its embassies in Cairo and Amman.READ MORE